Guild Wars 2

Thanks. I think what I’ll do is finish the Wv3 component of the Legendary, and the final shards, then grind out the AC tokens. If I find a decent group farming it, I’ll hang out with them for a while. It’s only 240 tokens more – just 4 completions. And I’m very patient.

I appreciate the advice and your time.

shonn.5037:

Ac path 3 final boss fight
when your on the floor as a Enginer you can not/ out run / out dodge/ survive the falling rocks !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXUFcTMwXs

You’re not supposed to dodge them. The npc creates a shield that protects you.

I also want to point out that the players in that video have absolutely no idea how to fight the new boss. The fact that they’re fighting it as if it was still the older version does not mean that there’s anything wrong with path 3.

I wonder how many ppl are still doing the new AC? Old COF P1 / Semi-New COF P2 still seems to be popular though.

What I don’t like about the new Kohler fight is that it now turned into a camera-management fight. At every time you have to keep a view on Kohler (or hope a team mate on voice chat shouts to dodge), while fighting off the adds.
I would be nice to have some additional audio cue.

Is Grast more reliable yet? If not, maybe he should create the bubble once, at the start of the fight, and it stays up the whole time. If the bubble only protects you from falling rocks, done.

Midnightjade.3520:

Thanks. I think what I’ll do is finish the Wv3 component of the Legendary, and the final shards, then grind out the AC tokens. If I find a decent group farming it, I’ll hang out with them for a while. It’s only 240 tokens more – just 4 completions. And I’m very patient.

Midnightjade, feel free to hit me up in-game anytime, and me and some guildies will gladly run you through the new AC. it’s not nearly as bad as what 95% of the forum population says. i try to run all paths of this dungeon at least once a week, whether it’s with guildies or pugs. good times.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Is Grast more reliable yet? If not, maybe he should create the bubble once, at the start of the fight, and it stays up the whole time. If the bubble only protects you from falling rocks, done.

It’s off and on. Most people stack up on the column to negate his annoying knock back attack that he spams. This also tend to help with keeping the npc alive and reviving those that die.

Dungeons aren’t hard

They are just poorly designed and have bad mechanics.

Also as much as people will disagree… this community is one of the least skilled i’ve ever experienced and that has a lot to do with the complaining.

For what is worth: after one month from the changes, on Desolation (one of the most populated EU servers) the entrance to AC is deserted. Used to be full of people, you could setup a group for any path within 5 minutes. Now you’ve to wait 20/30 minutes and/or use gw2lfg to setup a group, especially if you’re looking for a specific path (and even more if that path is #3).

I don’t know what the intention behind the changes was, but I find it hard to believe the aim was to make people not bother with the dungeon anymore.

I think one of the intention of the changes was to make the dungeon more engaging/entertaining and to bring on par with other dungeons (besides CoF) the difficulty/reward aspect of it. I think the changes have succeeded in their intention.

The fact that AC is now less frequented doesn’t mean much either, as unfortunately most of our community only cares about phat lootz , not gameplay/content. Simply look at some meta-events, probably the most boring pieces of content in game (zerged Maw comes to mind) and how they were swarmed for a month with the guaranteed-rare changes. That being said, if path 3 final boss is fixed, I see no reason why people wouldn’t run it now but would run the previous one.

Many of the changes they did to AC were fine, but I feel they went overboard with some of the changes. AC is the first dungeon in the game. It is supposed to be the easiest, but now it definitely isn’t.

The spider hatchlings that spawn with the Queen spider do huge damage and the team really needs AoE to clean them fast. The gravelings do a bit too much knockdown, especially considering that some professions e.g. the engineer and thief lack access to reliable stability. Getting knocked many times in a row, makes you feel like a ping pong ball. It has happened to me only twice though. I usually manage to time my dodges correct and run past the mobs.

The time window between the falling rocks from Colossus Rumblus and the red circles as warning is too small. Sometimes you see a lot of red circles around and over your character. And without teleport etc. there is no way to get out of the trouble, thus many teams get downed easily.

I think with these minor changes AC would be fine:
1. Slightly reduce either the number or damage of the spider hatchlings
2. Reduce the number of gravelings or make them less aggressive in mob attacking single player. Constant knockdown chains will down any character without stability.
3. Reduce the amount of falling rocks with Colossus Rumblus or give it a longer time window before the rocks actually start falling

People really need to look online for guides on how to do the revamped dungeon. I keep seeing people complaining that the dungeon is too difficult or impossible and their reasoning clearly shows they have no idea how to do the paths. Claiming that the boss at the end of path 3 is impossible because you can’t dodge the rocks is a good example. The npc creates a shield that protects you.

You don’t really need a guide. Just common sense and some skill.

Milennin.4825:

You don’t really need a guide. Just common sense and some skill.

Yeah but we’re talking about pug groups. You won’t find that many people who can look at a boss and figure out how to beat it on their own. Many people fail at lupi in Arah because they do not take the time to learn the moves and figure out why they fail.

I’ve done all dungeons in PUGs, and yeah, often we had a guy who’d done it before. Other times we were all new, but still figured out how to beat something.
Lol, the only time my group used a guide was against Simin (curse you!)xP

Robert Hrouda.1327:

All new stuff in dungeons is going to be hard for the first few days. We see it all the time with new content – people fail and get knocked down when they aren’t used to that sort of thing, and they claim it is too difficult.
Give it a week or so for everyone to develop strategies, learn encounters, and build fundamentals, and they will claim it is too easy. Trust me when I say this, the numbers are punishing (but less than they were before), but knowing the mechanics will greatly mitigate the danger.

Thank God ArenaNet has this mentality. That is the correct way of doing this! This is a GAME. This is exactly what is supposed to happen. You find an obstacle, you study that obstacle and it becomes easier. Anything else is bull… or a bunch of spoiled kids. I have ran dungeons where we died around 11 times on a boss. Some would give up. But never, not once, when the players continued we were not able to kill the boss and think it wasn’t so hard after all. That we could do it again. Where do I find more players with that mentality?

You’ll have a difficult time finding players like that in the newer generation of gamers. I won’t go into details about their characteristics but I’m sure you’re already aware of them.

I’ve done AC plenty of times and had a good deal of experience on it before the update. I have to say I enjoy the new AC. It encourages teamwork through its mechanics and fosters an understanding of skillset a player will need to do dungeons. In particular, several bosses act as an untwitchy “dodge check” with long wind ups. (Considering how many players I’ve seen in CoE that “don’t need to learn how to dodge” on Subject Alpha…then find out they do. Dodging’s a main mechanic of the game, I am all for the early dungeons teaching that this is a skill you can’t ignore.)

AC is certainly a challenge. But it’s not an unfair one, even for the level. We have videos of experienced PUGs all on level 35 alts doing the dungeon with ease. As newer players play the dungeon (and come to terms with the fact that learning a dungeon means you’re going to wipe a few times), they’ll develop the skillsets to make them a better player.

TL;DR Ascalonian catacombs is more of a challenge, but that’s fine. Please use it as a chance to learn how to dodge.

Skolia.2408:

I’m a casual PvE player and my friends and I tried the first exploration path of the new AC over the weekend.

The first path is undoubtedly the most difficult path. But except for the final boss, it’s actually relatively unchanged from what it had been pre-patch. PUGs have been failing on protecting Hodgkin forever.

Skolia.2408:

1. A number of times, players fighting a burrow got moved to the other side of a closed door which pretty much meant that the encounter would fail.

That’s a bug. It’s happened to me. Happens when you’re standing on the mound by that door as it dies; when the camera resets, it knocks you behind the door. Pretty sure the devs know about this bug, but it’s a legitimate complaint.

Skolia.2408:

2. Ranged players (ranger/thief with pistols) attacking burrows often got ‘obscured’ messages making the encounter much more difficult than it should be. Melee weapons worked ok (especially non-targeted ones) but more vulnerable classes not being able to stay ranged is a problem.

Not a bug. Range can be obstructed by other targets. The quickest way to take down the mounds is with melee and AOES.

Skolia.2408:

3. The knockdown the gravelings do takes the player (or NPC) out of action for a rather long time and the fact that they can chain this effect is just frustrating. (A number of MMOs put a special buff on a character when effects like this are applied that makes then immune to another application of it for a short time window – 30 or 60 seconds.)

This is frustrating. But the adult gravelings have a medium-to-long wind up before they knock you down and it can be dodged. Also, the graveling knockdown that was added in patch makes up for the fact that there are no more breeders or stalkers summoned by the mounds. In my mind, this section is much easier.

If a player can have stability for this section, it’s definitely recommended.

Skolia.2408:

4. We tried a number of tactics including particular players ‘guarding’ the NPC. Oddly, the warriors had a lot of problems holding aggro with large groups of gravelings. Ranger did not have this issue. Not sure if this is intended.

A good kiter is essential in this portion. The kiter shouldn’t be near the NPC, but should be guiding the gravelings back toward the northern burrow where the other players will take care of them when they eventually get to that burrow (the other four players should deal with the western burrows first). Mobs tend to go for whatever player nearby has the highest toughness, so that can help you select who’s going to be kiting. Even if the kiter fails toward the end, the NPC can take a lot of hits before he goes down.

Also the NPC isn’t supposed to help you fight. He’s busy researching. It’s always been that way.

Rash.6514:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

All new stuff in dungeons is going to be hard for the first few days. We see it all the time with new content – people fail and get knocked down when they aren’t used to that sort of thing, and they claim it is too difficult.
Give it a week or so for everyone to develop strategies, learn encounters, and build fundamentals, and they will claim it is too easy. Trust me when I say this, the numbers are punishing (but less than they were before), but knowing the mechanics will greatly mitigate the danger.

Thank God ArenaNet has this mentality. That is the correct way of doing this! This is a GAME. This is exactly what is supposed to happen. You find an obstacle, you study that obstacle and it becomes easier. Anything else is bull… or a bunch of spoiled kids. I have ran dungeons where we died around 11 times on a boss. Some would give up. But never, not once, when the players continued we were not able to kill the boss and think it wasn’t so hard after all. That we could do it again. Where do I find more players with that mentality?

It took “us” (2 Players and me) about 2 hours to get new duo tacticts for AC Path 1&3 to accomplish them in 7-8 (p1) and 10-12 (p3) minutes DUO.
Anyway, we’ve done AC 6-12 times / path before the patch and had fun doing it. After the update with new tactics we continued it until we set up some good time, solo’d path 1+2 and then… just stopped. Ive had an Idea to solo the burrow event in path 3, done it and was too lazy to finish the run. Because we stopped doing AC. And noone would care now anyway.

The Dungeon remains easy but doesn’t feel comfortable anymore.

well i joined a pug group as a level 36 Warrior and i have to say the new AC is a little to difficult to be introduced at level 35, i had to switch to my level 80 halfway through just to finish the dungeon.

our group consisted of a level 80 warrior and ele, a level 76 mesmer, a level 56 thief, and me level 36 Warrior. we did path 1 and when we where done the group dispersed because of how long it took.

now i only died once, but the rest of my party kept wiping and im sure it would have been faster if they had been better at dodging.

The fact I still get knocked over when a scavenger jumps on me when I have my SHIELD ABILITY THAT BLOCKS ACTIVATED is ridiculous. Thanks for ruining AC Anet. Don’t change any other dungeon, for everyone’s sakes. Until you figure out what you’re doing.

While AC is still doable even in a PUG / non “Elite”-Group, it has become incredibly tedious IMO and you need patient and determined players or you will never finish.

Most groups take 2+ tries at spider (usually half of the group leaves immediately after the first wipe), 6+ (!) tries to defend Hodgins, Ghost Eater takes really long even if you do it right (when not having 4x war, mes berserker group that kills him in 1 trap shot), Rumblus depends on if Grast puts his bubble up or not… (forget about fighting Kholer or Troll in a PUG – the latter is extremely deadly even on story mode!)

I guess it will get better once more people get familiar with the new AC (will take very long as few people do AC anymore)

Sorcerer.3095:

While AC is still doable even in a PUG / non “Elite”-Group, it has become incredibly tedious IMO and you need patient and determined players or you will never finish.

Most groups take 2+ tries at spider (usually half of the group leaves immediately after the first wipe), 6+ (!) tries to defend Hodgins, Ghost Eater takes really long even if you do it right (when not having 4x war, mes berserker group that kills him in 1 trap shot), Rumblus depends on if Grast puts his bubble up or not… (forget about fighting Kholer or Troll in a PUG – the latter is extremely deadly even on story mode!)

I guess it will get better once more people get familiar with the new AC (will take very long as few people do AC anymore)

Ghost eater can be done in under 5 minutes if your group uses basic coordination and know to attack him when he doesn’t have ghost shield up. A decent dps group can kill him with only two traps used.

This is no longer a baby dungeon so it forces players to take off their training wheels and learn the basic mechanics that are required for all the other dungeons.